Lambos, F1 Tracks, and Montreal

"George Richardson" (tnwagn) 01/11/2014 at 22:14 • Filed to: Montreal, Lamborghini, F1, Formula 1

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A few months ago, I had the opportunity to have a few hours to look around the city of Montreal while travelling back from a business trip. Unfortunately, my DSLR had decided to stay at home for this one but you have to make hay while the sun shines with whatever equipment is available, in this case my Galaxy S2. On my way out of the town I had seen a Lamborghini dealership right off of Autoroute 40 that I knew I would have to check out on my way back to town.

1. Lamborghini Dealership

Before heading back to Montreal I spent my time in Joliette, Quebec where we have a Bridgestone tire plant. I got a chance to check out an old Red Bull IndyCar that was raced by Patrick Carpentier back in the 2005 season [Although the nose cone looks different from track shots I've seen, so who knows]. Carpentier was born in LaSalle, Quebec, so it only is appropriate his car has made its way back to homeground.

2. Red Bull IndyCar

On my drive back to Montreal I saw a number of modified vehicles. Most were pretty nice looking like this little Honda Civic rolling down the highway. I found this pretty surprising considering the kinds of weather and roads people up there have to deal with the majority of the year.

3. Civic

I finally made it to the Lamborghini dealership, which was oddly in the middle of a typical business district. Not the kind of area I would think to see a dealership of $250,000+ vehicles. That said, their selection was pretty awesome. Not the typical but that made it all the better. While there I had to have a salesman with me at all times so I didn't touch anything. Carl was the guy who showed me around the floor and at first struck me as a guy in a suit selling Lambos. However, after a while chatting with him I could tell he was definitely a car guy at heart and not just in it for the flash and girls. I didn't realize until I left that I hadn't taken many full vehicle shots. Also, I only had my phone with me on this trip so the pictures aren't great. Still, I hope you all enjoy the selection.

4. Diablo Wheels

5. 95-98 Diablo Super Veloce

6. Diablo Mirrors

I always kind of laughed at the over-design of the 90's-era Lamborghinis. The rear deck is a perfect example. There are probably 50 parts that make up the rear deck-lid and bumper.

7. Rear Bumper detail

8. Lamborghini Montreal Decal

I accidentally refered to the "prancing horse" when talking with the salesman at one point.

9. Diablo Logo

BMW E64 M6 Vert. Beautiful car. After visiting the place I started looking for the cars online and found a few. I think it ended up selling for aroun $50,000 CAD

10. BMW E64 M6

Perfection by Mercedes

11. SLS

Until you see one in person it is impossible to understand how wide these cars are.

12. SLS Grille

I guess my misstep earlier wasn't such a big deal

13. Prancing Horse

Once you made your way further towards the back of the main showroom you started to find some seriously old, awesome vehicles. The first that caught my eye was a 1939 Packard Super 8 Convertible.

14. Swan Hood Ornament

15. Packard Emblem

White sidewalls need to make a comeback

16. Packard Super 8 Convertible

17. Ferrari 308 Interior

18. Porsche 911 Turbo S Wheels

19. Terrible photo of a Track-prepped Lotus Elise

20. Lotus Evoras for DAYS

21. Lamborghini Murcielago T

he far back turned into the 80's in Miami. I assume I received at least a contact high breathing near these two cocaine white vehicles

22. Vespa 90 Bentley with exposed screws on the sidemarker.

Guess in the 80's there were more interested in the badge than every single detail of the car.

23. Bentley sidemarker

I about crapped my pants when I saw the price for this car. $26k for a 89 Bentley Turbo with 55k on the ODO. Who knows the condition under the hood but this thing would be sweet for someone young with little-to-no responsibility [I.E. ME]. Even if the engine ate it who could deny the coolness of a V8 swapped Bentley?

24. Bentley Turbo

25. $26k

This next car is a factory-fresh 1970 Plymouth AAR 'Cuda. The thing was so mint it still had the factory window sticker in place. $4,269.60 to take it home. I made a joke to Carl about that being the sale price and he responded, flatly, "That is not the actual price." Damnit Carl.

26. Plymouth 'Cuda

27. Plymouth 'Cuda Rear End

28. 'Cuda Window Sticker

There were a ton of other cars I wanted to see [especially the closed off upstairs where they held the really valuable vehicles (car elevator to the top floor!)] but I was in a rush to get on the road to get over the the real reason I was excited to be back to Montreal, the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! shows the Lamborghini dealership [A] and the circuit [b] and how close they are to one another. Despite how close they are to each other, it took about 45 mintues of driving to get from the dealership to the track because of the crazy Montreal traffic. Seriously, I drive through Atlanta every week at 5PM on Friday and it can't even touch the traffic in Montreal heading towards Toronto.

29. Took a pit stop at Olympic Park Downtown

Spotted two film school kids driving around with a camera mounted to the roof of their car. A sign of things to come.

30. Film School Students

The drive in from the downtown side of Montreal to the track takes you across the Jacques Cartier bridge and through St. Helen's Island, which has a large park and plenty of cool little roads to explore [I.E. get lost on].

31. The Jacques Cartier bridge

When I pulled onto the track itself, there was a media van and a Porsche 911 Carrera getting ready to film a commercial. They waved me around because I guess a rental Ford Taurus isn't the best kind of background for their shoot.

32. Porsche Commercial at the track

I have a video of the track but haven't had a chance to upload it yet. I will try and post it tomorrow when I get a chance. Unfortunately, the track has a very strict 30km/h speed limit and they enforce it. That is, if you are in a car. The cyclists and inline skaters that get to use 1/2 the track have no set speed limit as far as I could tell. Pretty much the entire time we were getting passed by cyclists. The 911 and I got on it a little bit around turns 12 and 13 as well as the tight, uphill turn 2. When I say "get on it" I mean we went up to about 40km/h.

33. The grid

Finally, a nice Rickard's White to finish the day off. Rickard's in Canada is Blue Moon in the US. However, it is brewed independently and, as far as I'm concerned, is much better than Blue Moon.

34. Rickard's White

Hope you all enjoyed the pictures!

RotaryLover > George Richardson 01/11/2014 at 22:30

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And this is why I love this city!

EL_ULY > George Richardson 01/11/2014 at 22:31

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enjoyed a lot!!! thanks for sharing

desertdog5051 > George Richardson 01/11/2014 at 22:36

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That was a great dump and a greater narrative. Thank you for that.

George Richardson > desertdog5051 01/12/2014 at 00:20

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Thanks! I have gone to a ton of events and places with some pretty awesome cars but just recently started posting on Oppositelock. I will be posting more stories as time allows so keep on the watch!

George Richardson > RotaryLover 01/12/2014 at 00:21

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I have to say, I had no idea Montreal was such a big car city. Then again, I guess any city as large as it is will have a fairly large population of car enthusiasts. Those roads were brutal though! Love the city, despite the road conditions, I'm actually heading back through this upcoming week.

George Richardson > EL_ULY 01/12/2014 at 00:21

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Glad you enjoyed!

desertdog5051 > George Richardson 01/12/2014 at 00:27

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Look forward to it.

Stef Schrader > George Richardson 01/12/2014 at 00:31

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These wheels, those tires, and that color combo = winning at car.

George Richardson > Stef Schrader 01/12/2014 at 01:42

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Agreed. It was one of the cooler cars in the showroom. They had much better classic cars upstairs but it was off limits to mere mortals.

RotaryLover > George Richardson 01/12/2014 at 02:16

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Oh boy...watch out, it's a ice skate here right now.

stuttgartobsessed > Stef Schrader 01/12/2014 at 12:46

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This and that 308. And Maybe the Bentley Turbo R.

stuttgartobsessed > George Richardson 01/12/2014 at 12:47

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Those bentley's are supposed to have pretty darn good engines. It's the regular service that'll kill your wallet.